the jambourine family sesssion

Saturday me and the family packed up and took an hour trip to my hometown Marshall, TX for a family reunion. The family reunion was held for the Whitfield/Bookers- my late grandmother's family (my mom's mother). Since I'm a fidgety busy body I took this little project on the road with me. Yeah, I can't stand not having something to do with my hands - not even for an hour so I decorated a tambourine. I'll explain why later. Not that I really NEED to explain it- I just want to. So suck on that carrot.

Honestly, we arrived late on purpose so we'd miss out on most of the festivities; a cooking contest, a talent show AND a fashion show.... woooooo fun. But our plan failed. The whole evening's schedule was off about two hours so we arrived just in time for aaaaaall of that fun and merriment.

When we first got there I was instantly greeted with my all-time favorite family reunion greeting:

 "I bet you don't event remember me do you?!?!"

As a kid, this question would make me nervous and I would lie and mumble, "yes". Then said family member would hoot, "Oh yeah? What's my name?" Tears of shame and embarrassment would well up in my eyes and I would frantically search for my mother to come rescue me.

Now as an I adult when I'm asked that, I always respond with, "When was the last time I saw you?"

The response is usually something like, "Oh, you were maybe about two or three..."

And my final response: "Then, no. I don't remember you."

Luckily this time I only had to have that conversation once AND the person asking "do you remember me" was the one put to shame because they thought I was my older sister, Jessica. How about instead of cornering your poor relatives that you haven't seen in decades, just say something pleasant like, "Oh dear! I haven't seen you since you were just a a baby! I'm your cousin so-and-so!"

Surrounding the frame are all of my grandmother's siblings. My grandmother is on the left of the frame, third down. Sadly, the Saturday morning of the reunion, Freddy (pictured below) passed away so now there is only one left of the bunch. Joanne (I think that's her on the bottom of the frame, right in the middle).

I didn't even know my grandmother had brothers, or that many other siblings for that matter.

Overall, the family reunion was not fun. The hall was way too small for so many people which resulted in a constant deafening buzz of garbled R&B music and chatter and the food and drink was sparse. After about three and a half hours of this we said our goodbyes to only a few people and quietly sneaked out the door to head back home.

So about the tambourine. This year we're amping up the gypsy camp at the faire. We're going to have crazy vibrant decor, more music and more dancing but many of our gypsies are new to renaissance faire entertaining so they're unsure of what to do. Since I have a very strict "no loafing" policy, I'll be providing a few hand percussion instruments for those who need something to do. I knew I'd need something to do on the trip so I came up with this!

I found a great design online and printed it off. It was just the right size! I cut it out and taped it to the top of the head. As we drove to Marshall, I held the tambourine up to catch the sunlight and traced the design on the underside of the head, I flipped it back over and traced over design that showed through the skin. Then I filled in the design with whatever came to me and there ya go!

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little miss sunshine

A huge thunderstorm hit the Ramsey house two weeks ago. Not a real thunderstorm... well, we did have a couple of those. I'm talking a metaphorical thunderstorm - dark clouds, bad news, emotional destruction... and teething.  But no worries, for Little Miss Sunshine has many reasons to smile again!

So what happened?? Tell! Tell! Alrighty then:

My husband lost his job. He was fired and for a really crappy reason too. I don't want to go into much detail but the reason they gave him was perhaps one of the dumbest reasons for firing someone I've never heard of. It was almost as if they fired him, "just because."

My husband was the manager of the trailer park we live in and the perks were pretty darn good: free internet, a laptop for my husband to work from and to have for personal use along with an awesome printer/copier/fax machine, a land-line phone and most of all NO RENT. With no warning his boss came to fire him and they took all of that away. 

Since I manage an Etsy store, 2 websites, a renaissance faire and about 6 Facebook pages, not having the internet and all of that other equipment was, for lack of better words.... just not cool. But we've gotten all of that set back up now. As of this morning we're back online now, we found our old printer in the closet and now I can get back to work!

Oh yeah, it didn't help at all that during all of this, Mister River had four teeth coming in so he was an uncooperative bundle of fussiness and drool.

 I launched my ironing business and so far I haven't gotten any response. I know it's going to take a while for the word to spread, but we could really use a little extra money coming into the house right now, especially with the wee one coming in just a few weeks.

But here's why Little Miss Sunshine is smiling: 

My husband has already found another job and will start this week or the next. Our internet is back up, I have my own business phone and we have enough money to cover our bills and other expenses until the husband's first pay day comes. The storm came and hit us hard but rescue and cleanup happened in a flash!

 Oh yeah, River has bad news to share too. Kiddie pools have been banned in the trailer park... so this is now his summer fun. I think he's coping with it well enough though.

a dreary cheery fiesta

Yesterday, the dark menacing weather was fit for nothing more than a spooky Halloween celebration- not a colorful fiesta.

The clouds were black, the sun was no where to be found and the humidity was a thick 90%.

BUT this is Texas in July. Just as long as the temperature is under 100F, ominous skies at an outdoor baby shower are more than welcome. The only problem the weather created was dreary photos that needed some serious editing. Thank you Picmonkey. I was only able to do so much to brighten the photos, but oh well. You get the point of what's going on here, right?

For those of you just now tuning in, I hosted my own baby shower. Why? Because no one offered. Sad face? Nah. That's not really a big deal to me -  I love throwing parties and I've always wanted to host a fiesta style shindig, so I figured, why not do one for myself?

I set up a "build a burrito" station for our eleven guests. The burrito filling choices were: fajita style grilled chicken, seasoned ground beef, Mexican style rice, shredded cheese, refried pinto beans, refried black beans, sauteed mushrooms, pico de gallo, chopped olives (which every mistook for caviar), sour cream and guacamole. There were also tamales and chips with salsa and queso.....

 AND CUPCAKES!!!

Since everything was store bought, food setup was pretty easy. All I had to do was open jars or cans, put it into a dish and microwave it if necessary. Easy peasy. Eh, I made the ground beef and sauteed the mushrooms but that's all. During food prep, some nearby construction accidentally cut a water line and the running water went out. That proved to be pretty darn inconvenient for me and the guests had to deal with the whole "If it's brown flush it down. If it's yellow it's all mellow" thing. Totally not cool but we managed to survive the entire party that way.

 So that I wouldn't exhaust myself before the party started at 5pm, I slowly started to decorate the house at around noon. All decor was purchased at the Dollar Tree, the tables were borrowed from our church and the 1950s folding chairs belong to us. I made the Mexican style paper flowers myself. There were more inside but I didn't get any photos of them.

 As bloggers, many of us have to take our own photos at outings which usually results in the complete absence of self in the pics with the exception of that one selfie you managed to sneak off and snap in the bathroom. Does it bother you that you're always the only one taking photos at events and gatherings?  Wouldn't it be nice if you could just sit back and enjoy what's going on and have someone else take the photos for a change?

  I get a little tired of chasing people down, handing them my camera, "Hey! Would you mind taking a photo of me please? I just need one. Yeah, just press that button. OH! while you're at it, can you get me and my husband and my baby too?? Hey! Don't walk away from me! I need photos!! I'm a blogger! Help me!!!"

  

Yeah, I know- selfies don't always happen in the bathroom...

 And and that's my mom in the middle and my big sister on the right there. I hear tale that we all look very much alike but I don't see it. 

So that was my Saturday. How was yours? Read any good books or killed any endangered animals lately?

sounds like a plan

Now that my back is all healed up from a tweak from a bad turn, I'm still left with the "crunchy-spine" lower back pain of pregnancy. Instead of my pelvis growing slowly during throughout this pregnancy, it has decided to do all of its expanding over the past couple weeks. Now I'm waddling, I'm creaking and popping, I'm moaning and groaning and really just all around miserable...

But I've got too much to do around the house to stop moving and park on the couch for the next seven weeks. I was unable to start the ironing business Monday because I totally forgot that I'm hosting my own baby shower this Saturday and my house could reeeeeeally use some deep cleaning- so I've been doing that since Monday. I got started cleaning early so I can take my sweet time move at a low comfortable pace and do just one room a day. 

But wait - why am I hosting my own baby shower? Well, when I was pregnant with River my Aunt hosted Thanksgiving that year and it was also supposed to double as a baby shower for me. Well.... SHE KINDA FORGOT TO TELL THE REST OF THE FAMILY. So we returned home with a baby blanket and about $10 in cash.

Later, one person offered to throw me a shower. She was a lady from my church... not family or even a close friend. Just a nice lady trying to help but I think she forgot she offered so I didn't get a shower until River was 3 months old. It was hosted by another nice church lady, it was pretty small and we didn't get much but I really truly appreciated the effort. And this year? No one has even mentioned throwing me a baby shower so I decided to just do my own. No biggie. I LOVE hosting parties so this works out just fine.

We're going to have a super colorful fiesta. It's not going to be all pink and frills with a bunch of giggling ladies sipping punch and gushing over tiny little socks. It's just going to be a party. Just a fun party with beer and burritos.

I think River's already pretty bored with all the party planning, cleaning and talks of the new wee one. He is, after all, about to be dethroned in a seven short weeks. Nothing really to be excited about.

what's that... oh, bye!

It's been pretty slow around here lately. Nothing too spectacular has happened since the 4th of July. Well, I went grocery shopping today and shot a cow with a bazooka. I'm not proud of that last thing but it's something right?

 I jacked up my back a couple days ago (for the fifth time this year) so I've been taking it easy. Lounging on the couch, pimping the Faire, selling crap online and I've even been setting up to start my own temp ironing service. Yup- an old fashioned ironing service!! That all gets launched Monday and I'm actually pretty excited about it. I'll do it until the baby comes in September and then pick back up after the Faire in October.

Entire Outfit under $10

Shirt dress (edit: it's actually blue) - recent hand-me-down from aunt

Pink Chucks - Salvation Army

Yellow handkerchief - Wal Mart

Yeah, I know it's a pretty boring outfit, but it's stupid hot outside now. The less I wear the better. I'd go about in a swimsuit like Miss Vix if I could but I'd probably get arrested for indecent exposure with my hairy legs, lumpy butt and cellulite knees. Yes, it's true. I have cellulite down to my knees.

 

So, why an ironing service?  It's easy, I've already got the fancy equipment, I like money, I'm a fast worker, I can do it from home,  Etsy sales are slow and when I'm done doing faire work the rest of the day is open.... and did I mention I like to make money?

Speaking of Etsy - I'm closing up shop until next year. I'll be relaunching in 2015 with a new shop. No, it's not my "Massy Fassy" fascinator shop. I had to drop that one for personal reasons (er, lack of organization and confidence). I'd like to keep the new store a secret until I launch it, but I'll go ahead give you two clues because I'm SO excited about it - here's goes: Ethnic and textiles...

That's all I'm saying.

There's really not much left in the store but what is left, I don't want to keep it - I don't need it... so you go buy it.

And here's a little bonus fer ya before I go. More about... THE ROLLAHS. I've been using these long bendy foam rollers for a few weeks now and I'm just plumb addicted to them. A couple post ago you saw the end results but not the process, so here:

I sleep in them...

Take them out...

 Finger comb my hair (and makeup magically appears)...

And then wrap it up! Easy, fast and best of all, no more damaging heat styling and boring ponytails.

Give it a try! You'll love it.

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Yeah, so now I gotta go make dinner. Turkey burgers with colby jack, arugula and chard. Yeah, food time!

FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD TIIIIIIIIIIIME!!!!

the blah of July!

Ok, so there's really not much need for me to fully narrate what's going on these photos. 

You all know what's going on. So here:

Blah, blah, blah family and friends. 30 weeks pregnant blah blah blah.  Food, blah, blah. Yeah! 

...patriotic nails blah blah, blah... and then... blah blah blooooo.

Right? So, blah blah blah newborn baby blah, blah, so tiny. Tee hee, blah blah.

 Trailer park blah blah blah, American pride blah blah, blah blah blah 4th of July. And blah. Blah blah hate blah blah summer. But of course I blah blah blah. Always!

 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blue skinny jeans blah patriotic wonk wonk wonk River.

 ... blah wonk wonk blooooooooooo daddy blah smile - America.

 BBQ and hamburgers blah blah grilled blah yummy blah blah bleh.

 And then blah blah blah blah with the blah blah sparklers... kids everywhere blah blah blah dangerous blah blah, stayed away.

 Blah! USA!!! Blah blah blah, mediocre poorly planned fireworks show. Blah blah fireworks setting on camera blah blah? Blah artsy!

 So blah blah blah hormonal blah blah clean the house. See? America blah blah Brits? Canadians? Blah! Blah blah wonk.

Blah.